Teaching Historical Thinking
Sam Wineburg, in his book “Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts”, challenges all teachers of history to guide students to read, analyze, and write critically. Students who learn to evaluate primary and secondary sources, unpack points of view, and situate events within an historical context learn lifelong skills that are transferable and practical. Further, I believe, by studying history and learning for its own sake, students enrich their lives.
Of course, there have been a number of other studies on teaching historical thinking, including a classic one conducted at the University of Leeds, via the School’s Council History Project (cut and past link 1 from below) and the book “How Students Learn: History in the Classroom” (cut and past link 2 from below), both of which can be accessed through the National History Education Clearinghouse.
1. See: http://teachinghistory.org/issues-and-research/research-briefs/14961
2. See: http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=11100&page=R1
The fundamental questions include:
How do we best teach and learn about history?
How do we all create the past in studying it?
How do we teach students to “think historically”?
I taught an online college history course last spring, and we stumbled upon a research activity that many of the students found interesting. I had students from all over the country in the course, and they began looking at the statues in their towns and tried to find out the story behind the statue. As a former colleague of mine is fond of saying, the word history comes from the Greek verb, historia, to learn by inquiry. Nurturing curiosity is a very important part of the history teacher’s job.
In fact, this webblog is, in part, inspired by the work of Sam Wineburg (here I want to fully acknowledge my debt to him for his work), and he is part of a web-based project that incorporates “teaching historical thinking” called “Historical Thinking Matters.” I would strongly encourage teachers of history to check it out and to read about the inquiry-based approach the organizers advocate. It will appear in the “Links” on the right.
Just a quick question. What is the substantive difference between “historical thinking” and “critical thinking?” I teach ethics and philosophy, would it be possible to refer to this approach to teaching as “philosophical thinking?”
Historical thinking certainly involves a critical and analytical approach to understanding; however, the way historians conceptualize the past involves at the very least the use of evidence (primary sources) which coheres and supports a vision of how and why events happened. The best historical narratives engage the “historical imagination.” I am not a philosopher, though I did major in it in college. I may be dating myself, but the closest parallel might be the approach taken by Richard Rorty whose neo-pragmatism included an awareness of self-creation. (For a brief documentary on Rorty, see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7lB_wDaGJg). It might also be helpful to consider the comments of John Toews on historical thinking, self-identity (“self-fashioning” in Stephen Greenblatt’s term), and the academic project. (See his lecture at : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_nA6Dxr110).